Global thinking for Local Development - Special issue in support of the Inter-Agency Conference on Local Economic Development (LED), Turin, Italy, 22 - 24 October 2008

The ILO in collaboration with OECD/LEED has taken the initiative to organize this inter-agency conference to take stock of LED practices and to develop strategies for knowledge development and coordination between agencies. The Reader has been jointly prepared by the Job Creation & Enterprise Development Department of the Employment Sector and the DELNET Programme of the International Training Centre of the ILO. Along with the proceedings of the LED Conference the Reader provides a valuable resource for policy makers and practitioners alike.

Local economic development (LED) initiatives have a long history. In recent years, national Government and international agencies have increasingly provided targeted support to boosting local economies and job growth. Support and partnerships ranges from initiatives in small-scale community development to long-term assistance programmes to improve local and regional competitiveness for poverty reduction.

The common element among these approaches is the recognition of the specifics of localities and the uniqueness of local assets. The distinctive characteristic of LED processes is participation, ownership and dialogue between local public and private actors. The overview presented in this Conference Reader illustrates that there are different approaches to LED and different entry points for starting an LED process. What links these together is the common concern for making local economies robust and creating productive jobs and incomes for local populations and also the recognition that local or regional competitive advantage rests on local interactions, knowledge spillovers and institutional synergies.